Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson is being acknowledged for his performance in The Smashing Machine this year by the Golden Globes.
Earlier today, The Rock was nominated for his first-ever Golden Globe Award for his performance in The Smashing Machine. Johnson is up for Best Performance by a Male Actor (Drama).
The WWE Superstar recently spoke with Beatrice Verhoeven of The Hollywood Reporter. When asked where he was when he first heard about the nomination, Johnson revealed that he had the news broken to him by Ryan Coogler.
“Today has been very surreal,” The Rock admitted. “I sleep in airplane mode on my phone and keep it by my bed. I get up, and of course, I know the nominations are happening, but I also know that I got to get up with the babies at about 6:05 a.m. So I take it off airplane mode and start to get up.
“I’m getting ready to go wake up babies and I just hear one buzz. I went, “Oh, I got one text. That can’t be good.” I grabbed my phone, and I see that my first text is from Ryan Coogler. I went, ‘Well, he’s not texting me to tell me, ‘Hey, I’m sorry.’’ So I opened up that text and he said ‘Congratulations, brother.’ Then come to find out that the one buzz I got wound up being just the indicator that I had about 250 texts. But Ryan broke the news to me.”
The Rock explains what this recognition means to him
When asked what this recognition means to him, The Rock spoke very candidly and from the heart with his response.
“A few things,” The Rock began. “One of them is the importance of listening to the little voice that sits behind your rib cage, that at times whispers to you, and at times pounds on your chest to say that you can do more, and there is more, and it can be scary. And it might be scary because it will require you to step out of a comfort zone. And when things are good, you don’t want to step out of that zone, because it’s going good.
“But there was more: I wanted to really push and challenge myself and chase that challenge. I had something very special to me, which was the story. It’s been a long go with The Smashing Machine: seven years ago is when I first met Benny [Safdie] about this. So it’s been over half a decade to get this going and so, it represents believing in and listening to that little voice, and also doing the work, even when it’s scary, and surrounding yourself with like-minded people who are chasing the challenge as well. That would be Benny, Emily and Kazu [Hiro], who helped with this transformation every day.
“On top of that, I think the nomination represents the fight in everybody, especially with addictions and those demons that you battle. Mark Kerr had it all and lost everything, and then has since become sober. He did overdose twice. Life is good because he’s sober and because he made it. Not everyone is that lucky. That’s the movie that we wanted to make: a nod to those who fight.
“But last week, I thought, ‘Let me take a tally here.’ Over the last years, I’ve lost 15 friends who are all wrestlers and fighters to addiction. Some OD’d, some decided to check out. Life was too hard. It shook me, and then it restabilized me in a way like, ‘Okay, I’m so happy we made this film.’ It is a love letter to those that I just talked to you about. That’s why this nomination means so much.”
READ MORE: The Rock Thanks This Hollywood Star For Changing His Life
What do you make of The Rock’s comments? Did you enjoy his performance in The Smashing Machine? Let us know your overall thoughts by sounding off in the comments section below.
